King Gilgamesh has lived for a long, long
time, but his days are coming to an end.
He has six children, and the gods have ordained that they too will live
for centuries on end, albeit not as long as their father.

There’s a downside to this. They are
fated to be pitted against the six children of Chantu, the implacable foe of
Gilgamesh. And Chantu’s kids, like those
of Gilgamesh, will be similarly long-lived.

But
the gods have a sense of humor, and have devised several objects that will be
up for grabs among the two sets of children, including an amulet, a tablet, a
scroll, a bracelet, and a seal.

And a vial. Which contains the
elixir of immortality. Yeah, that should
stir things up for quite a few centuries.

What’s To Like...

The "Gilgamesh" in Pieces
of the Puzzle is based loosely on the incredibly old Epic of Gilgamesh story, which comes to us from
ancient Sumer. The Wikipedia article
on this is quite interesting and can be found here. PotP starts out with a prologue, set somewhat
soon after the Great Flood; but the bulk of the book is the storylines of the children of Gilgamesh. Timewise,
their stories are set in the 20th Century, and that’s “BC”, not
“AD”.

By
then, the kids have scattered into Africa, India, China, Mesopotamia,
Phoenicia, and North America. Historically, this is an
interesting time for those zones; civilization is just beginning to take
root. And not coincidentally, one each of the
Chantu children has also settled in the vicinity of each of these six locales.

The
authors have inserted a handy “Cast of Major Characters” at the beginning of the
novel. Bookmark it; you will be
referring to it frequently. The
historical settings are adequate for the story, but not overly detailed. The upside to this is that there are no info
dumps. Stylistically, this is a “cozy”
tale – some pirates drown, but that’s about as gory as it gets. There is also an instance of reaching up a
camel’s “canal”, but that’s more funny than gross.

This is not a standalone novel, but it ends
at a decent spot, with most, but not quite all, of the rival siblings being drawn to one giant meeting. Jennifer Fowler and Carrie Wahl have published
the sequel, Race To The Portal, but that
seems to be it. It doesn’t look like
Book 2 was meant to be the end of this series, but Amazon doesn't show a third book, so the whole effort may have
fizzled out.

Kewlest New Word ...

Gwier(n.)
: Hmm. Google came up empty for
this. A made-up word?

Kindle Details...

Pieces of the Puzzle sells for $2.99
at Amazon. The sequel
sells for $3.99.

Excerpts...

“I am seeking the
Far Away, Utnapishtim.”

Menachem raised
an eyebrow. “You must come from far to
use that name. What is your purpose?”

“He and his wife
know the secret to eternal life. I wish
to be immortal, as well.”

Menachem
frowned. “My children have completely
corrupted everything I taught them. Like
all men, you seek the impossible. It has
been decreed no man shall find immortality in this life. Men are weak, and it is a blessing that our
lives here are temporary. Everything we
gain here is as naught when we pass on.
I have seen more life than any man on earth today, and I know it would
be a curse to choose this immortality you desire.” (loc. 132)

They were mean
and miserly, hording (sic) everything they
had, unwilling to share just one crust of bread with an outsider. Even their trees were caged to keep animals
from stealing one bite of their bounty.
The unfortunate beggar who chanced to come to these cities and ask for a
bite to eat would be showered with gold and silver, while all food was
mockingly withheld from him. The poor
man would die on the streets with an empty belly and full pockets, which would
be raided as soon as he was dead.(loc. 4041)

“Perhaps…a long life is
not always the treasure one might think.” (loc. 2220)

Truth be told, Pieces
of the Puzzle didn’t resonate at all with me. The pacing was slow, and there was way too
much telling and not nearly enough showing.
The half-dozen storylines were too many and too repetitive, and the six
protagonists were cookie-cutter clones of each other, and rather dimwitted to
boot.

The storytelling is unambitious.
Our heroes are “drawn” to cities, or “feel the need” to board a certain
ship. They also all have the “magic
ability” to understand all languages past-and-present, which avoids those pesky
communication issues. Amazingly, one of them is
able to gad all around the New World, with only a dog for a companion, and not
run into any food or foe problems.

But the real turn-off for me came when the story veered off into
Religious Fiction. I knew I was in for this
when Abraham & Sarah (aka Abram and Sarai) were awkwardly and pointlessly inserted into the
story, time-after-time, with the authors gushing effusively about how spiritual
they were. The only mystery was exactly
what sort of dogma I’d be subjected to, since Abraham/Sarah are crucial to at
least three religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

It took a while, but this
finally became clear when swords were introduced into the North American
narrative. The only place you’ll find
this sort of nonsense is the Book of Mormon, and no one considers that to
be historically credible. This is not
the first time I’ve had to endure religious drivel disguised as literary
fiction (another example is here), and it’s one of my pet peeves. Hey, Jennifer and Carrie, Amazon has a Religious
Fiction section; if you want to toss your religious views into a
storyline, kindly label your book’s genre(s) properly. You are not doing God’s Will when you resort
to deception.

3 Stars.
Not recommended. Add 2 Stars
if you’re LDS and think all those Jaredites, Nephites, and Lamanites just
routinely made transoceanic trips to the New World at incredible speeds. SMH.

It is the moment of reckoning for Agatha. Now that she’s discovered her true lineage –
she’s both a Heterodyne and a Spark, it’s time to claim her rightful place as
the ruler and master of Castle Heterodyne.

Of
course she still has to prove to the rest of the world that she’s not a
pretender. That’s easily
enough done; she just has to enter Castle Heterodyne and have it accept
her. Which may sound strange, but the castle
is a sentient …er… being, and will exterminate all false claimants as soon as they pass through the front gate.

So
it is rather curious then, when another girl, Zola, sashays up to the castle
door and enters without any terminally dire consequences. Surely there is only one Chosen One, and
that’s Agatha.

Hmm. It’s enough to make a girl
think twice about entering Castle Heterodyne.

What’s To Like...

Agatha H. and the
Voice of the Castle is the third “novelization” of Phil and Kaja
Foglio’s fabulous Girl Genius graphic novel
series. As before, the book encompasses
three issues of the graphic novels, meaning this book covers Volumes 7 through
9. I’ve read the two previous
novelizations; they are reviewed here and here. to read this trilogy in order.

If
you liked the first two, you’ll enjoy AH&tVotC
as well. It has the same wit and humor,
and is another fine piece of literature for inspiring girls to become
scientists and engineers. The scene where Agatha is determined to improve the coffee brewing process was hilarious. So are the multitude of footnotes,
which will remind you of the late great Terry Pratchett. And I’m very intrigued by Airman Higgs.

The
authors work a fairly long and detailed backstory into the beginning chapters,
which slows things down. However, since
it’s been more than a year since I read Book Two, I was glad they
did. And once that’s gotten out of the
way, things hum along nicely.

Everything builds to a tense climax, but unfortunately, it has a
cliffhanger ending, something that I detest.
I’ll forgive it here, only because the primary source of the storyline
is the graphic novel, and we all know comic books are notorious for ending with
a cliffhanger to get you to guy the next issue.
Still, it sucks. I’m glad I got
this as a library book, not a purchase.

Kewlest New Word ...

Bindi(n.)
: a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women..

Others : Raconteur(n.).

Excerpts...

Gil cleared his
throat. “The very trait that allows
Sparks to apparently warp the laws of physics seems to affect probability and
statistics within their vicinity as well.
Every visible action will be open to misinterpretation and their motives
can easily be misconstrued.”

Klaus looked
startled. Gil leaned in. “Your words, Father, used to explain a rather
catastrophic incident in your father’s laboratory when you were eleven, if I
remember correctly.”

Klaus glared at
his son. “I was lying. I knew the cat was there.”(pg. 84)

Mr. Oilswick
piped up. “They’re still gaining, sir.”

The captain thumped
a fist down on a bulkhead. “Blast! There’s got to be something we can toss!”

“You scum!” The voice caught everyone by surprise. It was Duke Stinbeck. He had pulled himself up to a sitting
position. “You dare to strike my royal
personage? I’ll have every member of
your crew flayed alive! I’ll see to it
that you never collect a pfennig of your pensions! You’ll
never fly again!”

“Whenever he goes on like this, I just think of how many different
ways I can spell ‘eviscerate’”. (pg.
283)

Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle is another
solid installment in this novelized series, but I found it just a bit “off”
from the two earlier books. It seemed
like the cause was nothing major, just a combination of several little things.

First, there aren’t a lot of locations to explore – just Castle
Heterodyne and the town below it, Mechanicsburg. Second, there were a slew of characters to
meet, remember, and/or keep track of. Also,
the tone seemed darker and more serious, and Agatha’s side-endeavors into chemistry and engineering, which I find particularly entertaining and
motivational, seemed fewer and further between.
Lastly, it just felt longer and slightly “draggy” due to the need for an
extensive backstory.

I
suspect this is mostly because the stories were originally visual, in boffo
comic book style. Perhaps it all works
better in graphic novel format. I intend
to find out, as my local library carries a lot of the newer graphic novel
issues (to be eventually made into Book 4, I’m sure) and I’m going there this
weekend. If I can find where they stash
these, I’ll bring one home.

8 Stars. Add 1 star
if you’re a YA girl and Agatha H. inspires you to set your sights on becoming a
scientist, instead of a princess.

It is without a doubt the best moment in
Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast’s life.
After 12 years of mourning the death of his wife, Helen, he has found
out she is still alive and now has been reunited with her.

Alas, the absolutely worst moment in his life occurs just a couple
minutes later, when gunmen abduct Helen and whisk her away to an
unknown fate, leaving several dead passersby in their wake.

But
it’s not a good idea to cross Special Agent Pendergast. He’s an extraordinarily clever person with
FBI credentials and resources. And the
fact that all he has to go on is a stolen taxi cab’s license plate is not going
to deter him one bit when it comes to rescuing his wife. And when he catches up to the kidnappers,
there will be hell to pay.

But
what was it Confucius said? “Before you
embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

What’s To Like...

Two Graves
is the final book in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s “Helen” trilogy. The action begins immediately, recapping the
end of Book 2, Cold Vengeance, and doesn’t slow
down until the end of the book. There
are four seemingly-unrelated storylines to follow: Pendergast pursuing Helen’s
abductors, D’Agosta investigating a bizarre hotel serial killer, Corrie Swanson
finding her dad, and Dr. Felder trying to verify Constance’s age. This is not a standalone novel, so if you’re
unfamiliar with any of those preceding names, you may want to read this trilogy
in order.

I’ve
always liked the way Preston and Child create their Ultimate Evils. Here, he has almost superhuman talents, and
even though you know Pendergast will prevail, you wonder how he can possibly
overcome the UE’s abilities. It is also
extremely refreshing to have a hero who guesses wrong occasionally, especially
in critical situations. In Two Graves, Pendergast
seriously misjudges the hotel killer’s identity and miscalculates whether a gunman will shoot
his hostage.

As
always, the reader is treated to some great locations – New York City, the Deep
South, Brazil, and even a little-known city in Mexico that I’ve been to:
Cananea. You’ll learn the difference
between a Judas window and the Copenhagen window (to say nothing of Plato’s allegory),
as well as brush up on your Portuguese and German. There are thrills galore, twists aplenty,
enough violence and cussing to remind you this is an adult series, and just the
right amount of wit to keep everything in balance.

The
tension builds steadily to an exciting ending, which includes a long, drawn-out
battle sequence. Helen’s story is
resolved, albeit with the expected amount of Preston-&-Child surprises. But the unforeseen delight was finally learning Constance Greene’s full story, as well as that of her newborn child that she
claims to have killed by tossing him overboard during a transoceanic cruise. But don't worry about not having any characters to ponder, a couple
of new major ones are introduced for the reader to wonder about.

Kewlest New Word ...

Grotesqueries(n.;
plural) : grotesque figures, objects, or actions..

Others : Judas
window(n.; phrase).

Excerpts...

“Vinnie, what is
this?”

“An Italian
spritz,” he said as he sat down. “Ice,
Prosecco, dash of club soda, Aperol.
Garnished with a slice of some blood oranges I picked up from Greenwich
produce in Grand Central on the way home.”

She took another
sip, then set the glass down. “Um.” She hesitated. “I wish I could say I liked it.”

“You don’t?”

“It tastes like
bitter almonds.” She laughed. “I feel like Socrates here. Sorry.
You went to a lot of trouble.”(pg. 113)

“And so you think
you’re better than he is.”

“Of course I’m better. Everyone here is created for his place and
knows it from the beginning. This is the
ultimate social order. You’ve seen Nova Godoi. There’s no crime. We have no depression, no mental illness, no
drug addiction – no social problems whatsoever.”

“Supported by a
camp of slave laborers.”

“You speak from
ignorance. They have a purpose. They have all they need or want – except, of
course, we can’t let them reproduce.
Some people are simply better
than others.”(pg.
457)

“Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and
everything crooked will become straight to you.” (pg. 509, and a quote from
Nietzsche)

The
quibbles about Two Graves are few and far
between. Some of the death-defying escapes are
over-the-top. When Aloysius does this,
I’m okay with it. When a psychiatrist
does it, I raise my eyebrows.

Not all the storylines converge smoothly. The hunt for the hotel serial-killer kinda
fades away once the killings stop, and I had a tough time believing the NYPD would just lose interest when the mutilations cease. And
the “Corrie
and her father” thread, while it does get resolved, never did tie in
to the main story. Ditto for the bizarre
place where Dr. Felder found the key piece of evidence regarding Constance’s
claims.

But I suspect this is not any sloppiness on the part of
Preston & Child. Instead, it is more
likely a hint at where this series is heading.

8½ Stars. Which is what I gave the other two books in
the trilogy. This was a complex,
action-packed, twisty-turny story that kept me entertained from beginning to end,
and which held true to its promise to wrap everything up within the three
books.

It’s been a rough life so far for little Kira. First and worst, she was born with a crippled
leg, and any deformity is looked upon as a just cause to be banished from the
village by its citizens. Then shortly after she was born, her father
was killed while hunting. Only the stubbornness of Kira’s mother
prevented the villagers from sending Kira to a certain death in “the field” beyond
the village.

But
now her mother is dead, cut down by a sudden sickness, and their hut has been
burned to the ground to prevent the disease from spreading. No one is going to adopt a crippled girl, and no one is going to help her rebuild her home.

To boot, several of the neighboring women are
greedily eyeing Kira’s small plot of land already, and have brought about legal
proceedings to have her banished. How
can a little girl with only one good leg justify her continued living in the
village?

What’s To Like...

Gathering Blue
is Lois Lowry’s follow-up to her incredibly-popular, multi-award-winning book, The Giver. It
has the same general structure – a coming-of-age child is found to be gifted, gets
put into an important village position, and gains “special knowledge” that
reveals that things in the village are not as utopian as its inhabitants
think. The overall themes are the same;
but the details in the two stories differ considerably, with GB having a noticeably darker tone to it.

This is not a sequel. Although I got the impression that it’s set
in the same general location, it’s a different village, existing under
different conditions. These villagers
see colors normally, and the longer you live, the more syllables you get added
to your name. Four-syllable people are
given great respect.

The characters are engaging and easy to keep track of, which is the norm
for a YA book. I especially liked Matt
and Branch. The village was developed
more fully here than in The Giver. There is also a mild strain of humor here
that I don’t recall being in The Giver. Kira’s struggles to understand the bathroom
facilities made me chuckle.

The ending was not what I expected, which is a plus. But again, like The Giver, a lot of threads remain unresolved, which is a
minus. Being a YA novel, there is
nothing R-rated to be found.

Kindle Details...

Gathering Blue sells for $7.99 at Amazon, which is also true of the other two “follow-up” books in the series. Book 1, The Giver,
sells for $6.99, which is an excellent way to be introduced to this
series.

Excerpts...

She stood in the
open doorway and watched them retreat down the long corridor, the man leading
the way, Matt, walking jauntily just behind him, and the dog at Matt’s
heels. The boy looked back at her, waved
slightly, and grinned with a questioning look.
His face, smeared with sticky candy, was alight with excitement. She knew that within minutes he would be
telling his mates that he’d barely escaped being washed. His dog too, and all the fleas; a close call.
(loc. 619)

“Matt said she
was already a singer.”

Kira, thinking,
smoothed the folds of her skirt. “so
each of us,” she said slowly, “was already a – I don’t know what to call it.”

“Artist?” Thomas
suggested. “That’s a word. I’ve never heard anyone say it, but I’ve read
it in some of the books. It means, well,
someone who is able to make something beautiful. Would that be the word?”

“Yes, I guess it
would. The tyke makes her singing, and
it is beautiful.”

The
biggest problem with Gathering Blue is that
it doesn’t advance the thoroughly captivating plotline that was left dangling
at the end of The Giver, as Jonas sledded
down the hill to the new village. The
details may be different here, but underneath it’s just a repeat of the
storyline from the first book.

This
isn’t helped by the book’s POV. Although
written in the Third Person, the events are limited to what Kira sees, hears,
and experiences. Jonas had The Giver in
the first book to show him the broader picture; Kira has no such resource. Exciting things do happen in Kira’s story,
but they’re offstage, and we (and Kira)
only learn of them secondhand and after the fact.

In
fairness, Lois Lowry is upfront about this; she calls this book “A Companion to
The Giver”. But readers mesmerized by The Giver will be looking for a sequel,
not a rehash of something they’ve already read.
It’s no surprise, then, that Gathering
Blue made a much smaller splash in the literary world than The Giver. What is surprising is that there was a
7-year gap between the two books.

7 Stars.
I read Gathering
Blue to commemorate the 2015 Banned Books Week(28 September through 05 October), even though it’s The Giver that gets repeatedly challenged by
self-proclaimed censors. Add 1 Star if you haven’t read The Giver yet; Gathering Blue will feel a lot fresher in that case.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

It was undoubtedly the best evening of Amo's life. First there was dinner with Lara,
the waitress of his dreams but who he felt was way too pretty to look his way. That was topped off by a pleasant roll in the
hay with her, even though the doctors had told him that such excitement was
likely to kill him.

It’s
a pity, then, that what followed was the worst morning of his’s life. Something bizarre happened overnight, and now
it seems everyone in New York City – with the exception of Amo – has been
turned a zombie. And that’s a lot of
undead, all looking for a very limited supply of brains for breakfast. Which is bad news for pets, stray dogs, and
alley cats, none of which have been “turned”.

Plus Amo, with his alive-and-functioning brain. And who seems to be a zombie-magnet.

What’s To Like...

The Lastis
a Zombie Apocalypse tale, set in the US in 2018. For the most part, it is told in the first
person POV (Amo’s), particularly the first half, where he’s occupied with
learning what works and doesn’t work against the undead, and having enough
weaponry to keep them at bay. The reader
will learn a bunch of practical life-preserving tips, in case he should ever
find himself in a similar situation.

There aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of (if you’ve met one zombie, you’ve met them
all). Amo is a pleasantly
believable protagonist. He develops his
zombie-killing tactics by trial-and-error, and quite often he misses when he
shoots at them. I could personally
relate to his painful lesson about a rifle’s recoil.

The writing is both lighthearted and thought-provoking. There are a ton of Zombie Apocalypse books
out there, but I liked the innovative “cause” of this one, and the unique “best
way” to deal with the undead. Michael
John Grift’s wit is also a plus, such as the Yangtze online-shopping website. There are lots of kewl music references in
all sorts of genres, and music plays a key role in the storyline, although I
never did fully fathom exactly how.

There is some cussing, booze, “adult situations”, and a couple spliffs (see Kewlest New
Word, below) get rolled and smoked.
I was left with a couple unanswered questions besides the role of music,
the most notable of which are listed in the comments due to spoiler
considerations.

The writing is good.
You’ll bond with Amo as he tries to come to grips with his situation,
and even have some empathy for the zombies, who have no idea why they were
“turned” without any warning and for seemingly no cause. This is not a standalone novel, but it ends
at a logical place, with this stage of the tale being satisfactorily completed.

Kewlest New Word ...

Spliff (n.) : a joint; a marijuana cigarette.

Kindle Details...

The Last sells for $2.99 at Amazon. The sequel, The
Lost, is the same price. Michael
John Grist has a number of other e-book offerings, all in the $0.99-$4.99 price range.

Excerpts...

“You’re lucky
you’re alive. You know how many people
out there who’re immune? Do you have any idea?”

“No idea. I didn’t see any. Maybe her?”

“Maybe her. On top of that there’s me and there’s
you. I’ve not seen any others, Amo, not
any at all. Every live video feed I saw
got corrupted in seconds, because the people filming it were infected. It’s the most virulent thing ever. It’s like that cat in the box, the second you
open the box to see if it’s alive or not, it drags you in so you’re inside the
box too.”(loc. 658)

I sigh and lie
back. The tea and bolognese can be
breakfast. I look up at the sky. Of course it’s the same sky. These are the same stars, though the shooting
ones aren’t.

“They’re not
really stars,” my dad told us once.
“They’re just little bites of interstellar dust, or the screws and nuts
that come off falling satellites, burning up as they enter the Earth’s
atmosphere.”

This awed us even
more. That there was a layer of sky up
there so hot that it burned, that interstellar dust was reaching out to our
little planet across the gulf of space, then falling down upon us like a fine
rain, like fairy dust.(loc.
3008)

“Damn the zombies, full
speed to the West!” (loc.
1963)

There were a couple slow spots for me, most
notably in the first portion of the book where a lot of pages are spent detailing Amo killing zombie after zombie after zombie. But that’s probably unescapable
in any zombie apocalypse story; it wouldn’t be a tale of terror unless there
were zillions of them to deal with.

And
it’s also probably inherent in any book where, for most of the pages, we’re
dealing with a single character, stranded and all alone (zombies don’t count as characters)
in the world. The present hit movie, Martian, faces this same challenge. So did the book/movie I Am Legend, reviewed here.

But I quibble. Amo’s drawn-out
loneliness serves to emphasize his plight, and if Michael John Grist had made
it shorter, I’d probably be griping that it hadn’t been developed enough.

7½ Stars.The Last
is my third zombie book already this year, and this is not a genre I normally
read. I don’t know if this is an anomaly
or a trend. Add 2 Stars
if you’re a zombie enthusiast; I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy this book.